Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Moscow Still Won’t Help Children of Those Who Died in World War II

Paul
Goble

Staunton, May 10 – Every year,
Russian officials bemoan the fact that the number of World War II veterans who
survive is declining fast, especially now that the youngest are in their late
80s. But at least Moscow pays them some attention. But it has completely failed
to attend to and help another and larger group of victims – the children of
those who died in that war.

In a remarkable article which
appeared yesterday on the Kavkazskaya politika portal, Svetlana Bolotnikova
observes that “the state has been quite concerned about the [war’s] veterans
but it has entirely forgotten about the children of those soldiers who died” in
that conflict (kavpolit.com/articles/my_rosli_bez_ottsov_v_golode_i_nischete-25510/).

As a result, the journalist and
commentator says, this group, which is far larger although already in its 70s,has grown up not only “without fathers” but
“in hunger and poverty,” a damning indictment of a regime that constantly
proclaims its commitment to taking care of those Russians who suffered from
that war.

Bolotnikova devotes most of her
article to recounting the often horrific lies of families caught up in this
situation, people who had already suffered from the GULAG and the Holodomyr
before the war and whose suffering only increased when they were caught up in
the conflict when their husbands were killed or missing in action.

Such mothers and their children also
suffered, she recounts, when they lived on occupied territories and were afraid
of the consequences of turning to officials, and when Soviet officials refused
to help them and their children beyond suggesting that widows give up their
children to orphanages and get to work.

But in addition to their suffering, these
people who number in the hundreds of thousands suffered because at no point did
the government of the USSR or has the government of the Russian Federation
adopted special programs to provide assistance for those whose fathers or
mothers died in the conflict.

That has left many in dire poverty,
without prospects for education and pensions, and in a situation that one of
their number says has left the children of the dead and the MIAs from World War
II in a much worse position that those who are children of veterans who have
served in the Russian military since that time.

Some regions and some all-Russian
political parties have moved to do something about this, but they have been
consistently opposed by the Putin regime and United Russia. Fifteen federal
subjects – including Adygeya – have adopted special laws, and the KPRF has
introduced legislation to rectify the situation.

Representatives of the Kremlin and the party
of power have routinely rejected this proposal with many representatives of
United Russia saying that such a measure could open the way to providing
government support for all children born during World War II even if their
parents survived.

“Yet another argument those opposed” to
such a measure often advance, Bolotnikova says, is that those involved are
already older than 70 and have other bases to claim pensions. That may be true
in some cases, but the journalist’s investigation shows that it is not true in
all too many.

Yes, it is true, the journalist concludes,
the proposed law won’t make a big distinction between the children of those who
died and of those who lived. But it is also the case that even this measure
would provide “laughably” small assistance to many who have not received any
throughout their lives.

In short, it appears, such a law is the
least Moscow can do; unfortunately, at present and despite all its ballyhoo
about the Great Patriotic War, the Putin government isn’t prepared to do even
that.